The EU Court of
Justice has ruled in favor of Christian Louboutin in a legal battle between
the French designer and Dutch footwear retailer Van Haren, which started
selling stiletto shoes with red soles in 2012. The highest European court
recognized the red soles as a trademark protected by Louboutin’s
company.

According to European law, the shape of a product cannot be
trademarked. Van Haren then argued that the color of a shoe’s sole is part
of the product’s shape. But the highest European Court did not agree:

“A
mark consisting of a color applied to the red sole of a shoe is not covered
by the prohibition of the registration of shapes”, said the EU court in its
binding decision. The case will now go back to a Dutch court, which had
sought advice from the EU Court of Justice about the matter.

”The red
color applied on the sole of a woman’s high heel shoe is a position mark,
as Maison Christian Louboutin has maintained for many years”, said
Louboutin in a statement.

This is not the first time
Louboutin has won a legal battle over its iconic red soles. Last month, the
Paris Court of Appeal also
granted the French
designer exclusive rights over the use of color number 18.1663TP from Pantone’s color chart. Parisian
leather goods store Kesslord, which also sold stilettos with red soles,
requested Louboutin’s trademark to be nullified, but the court decided in
favor of Louboutin and sentenced Kesslord to pay the luxury fashion label
7,500 euros.

In 2012, a New York court backed Louboutin in a legal
dispute against Yves Saint Laurent, awarding Louboutin the right to
trademark protection over the red soles, “except if the rest (of the shoe)
is the same color”.